What do you get when you cross 19 children, 5 "mystery items", and NO EYES allowed? You get one dang HYSTERICAL time...oh---and some really good learning going on! We started our 5 senses unit this past week! Today we learned about the sense of TASTE! We had 5 "mystery items" we had already portioned out into bite sized pieces. Here's what we used. Then we gave all the kiddos a recording sheet. Then we made them promise to tell their eyeballs to STAY OUT of the experiment. Do you know how hard that is for a 5 year old? Hard! As in---really Hard! As in one kiddo even said "I am not even that good at keeping my eyes closed!" HA! Then we had them hold out 1 hand and cup it to await the first "mystery item". They couldn't touch it with their other hand, or smell it, or "listen" to it...no other senses could be used! When we said "POP IT!", they were supposed to trust us FULLY and COMPLETELY and pop that little morsel RIGHT into their mouths...sight unseen! Well---this went VERY well (with only a random peek or two here and there!)...UNTIL...wait for it---wait for it---UNTIL---we gave them a Sizzling Cinnamon Jelly Belly Jellybean for item #4! Everything was all fun and games until the "FIRE" started burning! They were waving hands, smacking lips, spitting out driblets of slobber and tiny particles of Jelly Beans---except for the few brave souls who said "More! More! Please! I have taste buds of steel!" or something very similar to that. Anywho...I guess you can imagine they were just the TEENSY TINIEST BIT leery when "mystery item" #5 rolled around. Honestly...one kiddo actually REFUSED to hold out his hand to take it! The 18 other brave souls said they were ALL IN and just go ahead and BRING IT Mrs. Fogle! So I gave them CHOCOLATE! That is very sweet of me---only did I mention that it was UNSWEETENED chocolate? Well, in my defense...bitter stuff isn't SUPPOSED to taste good and well---I couldn't give them black coffee, could I? Plus, I knew they would be peeking FOR SURE on item #5 so it had to LOOK innocent enough! Well those people DID NOT, I repeat DID NOT feel the love for bitter chocolate. One of my too funny girls actually claimed she thought "mystery item" #5 was DIRT! People, if you have not had any unsweetened chocolate in a while-DON'T! That's ALL I have to say about that! DON'T! So all fun and games aside, they TRULY loved the whole thing. They were actually wanting a "Mystery Item" #6! They were proud that their tongues were so smart and guessed ALL of the items correctly---even if they did set their mouths on FIRE and eat DIRT! ;) PS --- If you love this activity, you can find it in a GREAT pack I purchased from Jessica Rosace on TpT called My 5 Senses Unit Plan! Here's hoping you are having a HAPPY hump day!